The construction and action of the human foot has evolved over many millennia. During most of this evolution, typically people walked barefoot on dirt, sod, or similar surfaces that tended to yield or give as pressure was applied by the foot.
In recent centuries it has become increasingly customary to encase the foot in a shoe construction typically characterized by certain features, including a raised heel and last or envelope molded to closely fit the foot. Both of these features distort the action of the human foot, and the human body, while walking or standing. The raised heel tends to pitch the body forward requiring its musculature to counteract the tilt. This also tends to restrict or limit the action of various muscles, such as the calf muscles, while walking to in turn reduce the pumping action they exert on the blood and lymphatic flow through them. The molded last portion of the shoe tends to impede, prevent, or exaggerate the pronation or splaying action of the foot as weight transfers from the heel across the arches to the forefoot structure during the contact portion of a typical stride. But most people have become accustomed to such a shoe construction and do not now associate these features with any resulting musculature or skeletal problems they may experience, even though these features can contribute significantly to such problems.
The principal objective of the present invention is to provide a shoe construction or assembly designed to at least permit, and in a preferred embodiment to enhance, the normal action of the human foot both while standing and while striding. Another objective is to provide a balanced shoe construction or assembly that includes features and materials selected and interrelated to enhance the flow of energy through the components of the shoe assembly during the contact portion of the stride. A further objective of the present invention is to provide a shoe construction that is adaptable to various types of footwear such as sneakers, sandals, brown shoes, casual/dress shoes, and boots, thereby to extend the advantages of the invention to substantially all of the activities typically requiring shoes.
These and other objectives of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in this field from the following description of preferred embodiments of the invention.